Video telephony is a technology that makes it possible to have a conversation by listening to the speech of another party while viewing the image thereof by simultaneously transmitting and receiving voice and image data.
Since the size of voice data is relatively small, call services via a wired network and a mobile telephone service based on global system for mobile communications (GSM) or code division multiple access (CDMA) technologies have already been commercialized. On the other hand, since image data has a significantly large size, a network for supporting a high transmission rate is required. For this reason, mobile terminals for video communication have not been commercialized.
However, a mobile video communication service using technologies of high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and the like has been recently commercialized.
Video telephony has an advantage in that conversation may be made while viewing an image of another party, but has a drawback in that the image of the other party is transmitted even when the other party does not want to be viewed. Accordingly, the need exists for a technology capable of replacing or modifying a self-image with a proper image during a time in which the mobile video communication service is available.
To overcome the drawback, conventional video telephony terminals use a method for replacing a camera-captured image with a replacement still or moving image or superimposing a frame image on the camera-captured image.
A method for employing a replacement image in a conventional video telephony terminal will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
A user designates the replacement image before video communication (S100). At this time, the replacement image may be a still or moving image. The replacement image may be a photo of a user, an image of a partially transparent frame, or the like.
When a video communication connection is established (S102), the user may select whether to transmit the replacement image or a camera-captured image to another party (S104).
When the replacement image is not selected, the camera-captured image is transmitted to the other party (S106).
When the replacement image is selected, the replacement image designated in the replacement-image designation step S100 is superimposed on the camera-captured image and is transmitted to the other party (S108).
As mentioned above, the replacement still or moving image should be designated in advance before video communication. However, in this case, it is difficult for the user to quickly replace only a target image region since stored images may be limited.
Also, the conventional video telephony terminal may transmit only camera-captured images to the other party. In order to transmit a message generated by the user during video communication, the message should be transmitted in the format of text after releasing a video communication connection or the message having the format of text should be transmitted through a simultaneous voice and data (SVD) service during video communication.
There is a problem in that a means for transferring a user's message other than his or her speech to another party through the conventional video telephony terminal may be limited.